Paralysed murder convict to be hung while in wheelchair

Pakistan is planning to execute a paraplegic man by hanging him while he remains seated in his wheelchair, the first case of its kind in the country.

The Telegraph reports that, Abdul Basit, 43, was convicted of murder in 2009 but a bout of tuberculosis while detained in Faisalabad Prison the following year, left him paralysed from the waist down.

Following Pakistan's decision to lift its temporary ban on executions in the wake of the Peshawar massacre last December, Basit has moved to the front of the queue to be killed.

This has sparked furious debate over the legal, ethical and even practical implications of his execution.

Having been issued with a 'Black Warrant' on July 29 confirming his imminent execution, Basit's lawyers and human rights campaigners have battled for him to avoid facing the scaffold.

As Basit cannot support his own body weight, he obviously would not be able to 'mount' the scaffold or 'stand' upon it.

This has left the officials to claim that the only way to get around the regulation would be to hang the condemned man to death while he remains seated in his wheelchair.